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All set for a photo-finish

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE DEC. 19. The boards are set for the most exciting finish in the 58-year history of India's premier domestic chess tourney.

Three young guns — the brilliant Pendyala Harikrishna, the solid Surya Shekhar Ganguly and the maverick Sandipan Chanda — go into Saturday's final round of the 41st National men's `A' chess championship with dreams of a maiden senior National title. They share the lead, after the 22nd round, with 16.5 points each.

"This is undoubtedly the closest finish ever in a National `A'," said Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay, a seven-time winner. "There have been two-way ties for the title on many occasions before, but not a three-way one like this".

Of the three, Harikrishna looks more equal than the other two, because his tie-breaker score in the Koya system is likely to be superior, if they finish level after the final round, according to chief arbiter K. Ratnakumar. Ganguly has the next best chance. Maybe Chanda, who scored a crucial win against Koneru Humpy on Friday, needs a bit more luck than other two.

But in the Koya system, it's not just their results that matter, so many more calculations may still have to be made. The question of tie-breakers would arise only if the trio win their games on Saturday, or if all of them draw.

And each one of them begins as favourites in those games: Harikrishna against S. Satyapragyan, Ganguly versus Suvrajit Saha and Chanda against Sriram Jha. Interestingly, all the three have black pieces.

The National `A' is not just about the title. In fact it's more about qualifying for the Indian team for the Olympiad. So far only the above-said three have confirmed their tickets for Spain.

The results (22nd round): Pendyala Harikrishna 16.5 bt Roktim Bandyopadhyay 10; Abhijit Kunte 14.5 drew with Prathamesh Mokal 10.5; Dibyendu Barua 14 bt Sriram Jha 8; Sandipan Chanda 16.5 bt Koneru Humpy 14; Vikramjit Singh 9 drew with V. Hariharan 4.5; Sunderrajan Kidambi 12.5 bt Suvrajit Saha 8.5; Surya Shekhar Ganguly 16.5 bt Arghyadip Das 8; R.B. Ramesh 12.5 drew with Praveen Thipsay 11; Vishal Sareen 8 drew with Tejas Bakre 13.5; M.R. Venkatesh 11 lost to Neelotpal Das 13; M. Srinivasa Rao 4 drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 11.5; T.S. Ravi 7.5 lost to S. Satyapragyan 9.

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